Middle-aged rural men full to the gills

By BRIDGET CARTER

Middle-aged men make up nearly two-thirds of the drink drivers on rural roads in some parts of the country and half of them have been caught drink driving at least twice.

Nearly all repeat drink drivers are men over 20 in some areas.

And several have been caught over the limit eight or nine times.

The findings come from an internal police report leaked to the Herald on drink driving last year in Northland - a region that has lead the country with the highest number of alcohol-related crashes on open roads.

But it now trails Bay of Plenty, where a quarter of accidents on open roads last year were alcohol-related.

Some of the worst horror stories related to drink driving have come from Kaitaia - where the highest number of drink drivers were caught in Northland during March this year.

The cases include:

A Far North teacher who blew 1400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath during August, then blew nearly 1500 only days later (the legal limit is 400).

A man, who was being driven from Ahipara to Kaitaia by his son, aged 12, blew just under 1000 mlb.

A male driver was caught driving with a breath alcohol reading of 1232.

After a 21st birthday party in Kaitaia, police caught nine people drink driving.

Kaitaia Prosecuting Sergeant Steve Maddren said there were cases that surfaced nearly once a week in Kaitaia where people blew 1000 mlb.

First-time offenders faced three months in jail; repeat drink drivers faced two years.

Although men aged over 20 feature as the worst drink drivers in Northland, figures for men under 20 and women in Northland were more positive.

Young men made up only 17 per cent of offenders last year. Females made up less than 15 per cent.

Northland's road policing manager Inspector Rex Knight said the results from the report into Northland drink driving showed that the judicial system was not having an impact on the men over 20 who were continually driving.

"We have a problem with white, middle-class males thinking 'it is my God-given right to do it ... particularly in rural places.'

Inspector Knight said police were combining covert methods of targeting drink drivers with the compulsory breath-testing stops.

But booze buses with all the "bells and whistles" were not so effective in small communities where "the tom toms go and the phones go", he said.

Both road policing managers for the Waikato, Inspector Leo Tooman, and the Bay of Plenty, Inspector Chris Douglas, said about half of their region's drink drivers were middle-aged.

"These people are slow to take on board that drink driving is unacceptable," he said. "In a small town, people have been doing it for years. Their fathers were doing it before them, and it has just been bred into them. They believe because they have only a short distance to go, they are going to be okay."

He said nine times out of 10 they would be okay, but it was the tenth time when the problems happened.

With younger drivers, however, Inspector Tooman said the message was getting through.

"The young ones have taken it on board. It is a culture that has developed around looking after your mates. If we can keep that culture going, we will be on to a winner."

Drink drivers

61 per cent of Northland's drink drivers are middle-aged men.Their average age is 41 per cent get caught more than once.

Middle-aged men make up 80 per cent of the region's repeat drink drivers. Several have been caught driving drunk eight or nine times.

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